iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Evelien Adriaenssens @evelienadri.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Here are my first thoughts as a phage person about the @anthropic.com announcement about a novel enzyme on a phage: www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-tho...

linkedin.com

My thoughts on the Anthropic phage enzyme discovery

* Disclaimer: This is not a scientific review, just a few thoughts I had while reading..

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Siân Owen @sianowen.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

It was an honour to play a very small part in this tour de force study from @vivekmutalik.bsky.social and @simrouxvirus.bsky.social! Exploring genes (chromosal & plasmid) required for infection by some my favourite phages (F plasmid-dependent phages) 🤩

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Vivek Mutalik @vivekmutalik.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Some of the smallest 😎 viruses on Earth are all around us. Three or four genes 😍 each, in nearly every environment. We keep finding thousands by sequencing, yet don't know who they infect, can't easily isolate them, or even how the few we have infect a cell. Our new preprint takes this on 🧵👇

Schematics of how single strand RNA and DNA phages infect bacteria with F-pilus

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Tatta Bio @tattabio.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

UniProt is where most researchers start when they want to understand a protein. As of today, prokaryotic entries there will show something new: genomic context, powered by SeqHub, right in the Sequence section of the page.

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Xavier Charpentier @labxc.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

#microsky New preprint from the lab! Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Kudos to the extremely talented lead author Ludovic Poiré! Key contributions by @francoisrousset.bsky.social and also help from C. Lesterlin/TacC lab. 🧵⬇️

biorxiv.org

Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids

Conjugative plasmids are a class of mobile genetic elements capable of efficient transfer between bacterial cells. Although they can introduce beneficial traits such as antibiotic resistance to recipi...

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Siân Owen @sianowen.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Cool new plasmid work from Joe Wade's lab at the Wadsworth Center! Lots of conjugative plasmids encode Histone-like nucleoid-structuring protein (H-NS) proteins, and there's increasing evidence they somehow specifically bind to the plasmids that encode them #microsky #plasmidsky

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Joe Wade @joe-wade.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

New preprint from our lab, in collaboration with the Santiago/Ruiz-Perez group at UVA. We found a plasmid-encoded DNA-binding protein that preferentially binds its own plasmid! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread:

biorxiv.org

A plasmid-encoded H-NS protein selectively binds its own plasmid

H-NS is an abundant nucleoid-associated protein found in Enterobacterales species. Some conjugative plasmids encode H-NS homologues, which are thought to facilitate plasmid maintenance and reduce the ...

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George O'Toole (he/him/his) @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Our Dept of Microbiology & Immunology @Geisel School of Medicine @Dartmouth has an opening for an Assistant Professor. Looking for programs bridging multiple areas in Micro & Immuno. A great place to be! Programs: www.M2P2.org www.dartmouthbiofilm.org Job ad: apply.interfolio.com/187637

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calebmallery.bsky.social @calebmallery.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Had a great time presenting my work today at the Boston Bacterial meeting! Stop by my poster tomorrow #152 #BBM2026

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Suckjoon Jun’s lab at UCSD @junlab.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

1/ Out today in Science (@science.org): a result a decade in the making, and one that changed how I think about what cells are doing when they grow. We found a bacterium that grows slower than it could. And we found the molecular switch that lets us reverse it.

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CNY ASM @cnyasm.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Attending #ASMicrobe this year and want to keep the fun going? Or, do you have FOMO from not attending? We’ve got you covered! Save the date for CNY ASM’s inaugural fall meeting! October 16 in Syracuse NY! More details to follow.

Save the date for the inaugural CNY ASM Meeting. The date is October 16, 2026 at SUNY ESF in Syracuse NY.

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Maliheh Mehrshad @mehrshmali.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

🔬 We have an open PhD position at SLU Uppsala! We're looking for a curious & driven PhD student to join the #ECOPHARM project funded by @kawresearch.bsky.social and investigate plasmid-dependent phages in aquatic ecosystems. Pls share with anyone who might be interested! www.slu.se/en/about-slu...

slu.se

Diversity of Plasmid-Dependent Phages in Aquatic Ecosystems | slu.se

SLU - Science and Education for Sustainable Life

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Siân Owen @sianowen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Fun fact: you can watch @baym.lol demonstrate how to pour a MEGA plate that is actually just a turbid G. stearothermophilus culture on 60 Minutes 😆

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Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Dr. Indra Gonzalez Ojeda gave a great thesis defense this morning, including some wisdom for starting PhD students, or frankly, anyone.

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Type VI Sophia System @wheezenfeld.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

News & views piece just dropped from @indragon.bsky.social and @billhanage.bsky.social discussing some of the coolest work I've read all year! Phages shaping cholera epidemiology AND experimental evolution mirroring the real-world evolution is 🔥 (Kim Seed also gives an amazing talk!) rdcu.be/fihkG

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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Bacteriophages are in a constant arms race with bacteria 🦠 The Phage ORFeome pooled library from the Aaron Whiteley lab contains phage proteins that activate antiphage defense systems — a tool to dissect the mechanisms of bacterial immunity. Aaron Whiteley

twp.ai

Addgene: Phage ORFeome Library

Use the Phage ORFeome Library to uncover the triggers responsible for immune activation.

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Daria Van Tyne @dariavantyne.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

My lab at Pitt is looking for a Research Scientist to help us make phage therapy for patients with antibiotic-resistant infections. Please share and apply! cfopitt.taleo.net/careersectio...

cfopitt.taleo.net

Research Scientist

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

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Vivek Mutalik @vivekmutalik.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

📣Huge preprint 🔔 Today we share something our group has been working toward for a long time, led by @lucasmoriniere.bsky.social We asked can we predict which receptor a phage targets from its genome sequence alone? For most phages, we couldn’t. So Lucas set out to do something I had only dreamed of.

Phage receptor prediction from genome sequencing alone. Bacterial receptor (blue) interacting with phage proteins (purple) is shown here

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Jon Paczkowski🌹 @paczkowskilab.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

A true labor of love for @calebmallery.bsky.social is out now in PLOS Pathogens: a review article where we highlight current and emerging examples of key protein-protein interactions with LuxR-type receptors that control community behaviors and pathogenesis. journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

journals.plos.org

Expanding the LuxR-type receptor functional repertoire: Protein-protein interactions in quorum sensing regulation

Quorum sensing (QS) enables bacteria to coordinate gene expression in response to population density, with LuxR-type transcription factors playing a central role in this process for many Gram-negative...

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Jens Hör @jenshoer.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Excited to share the first preprint from the lab! We show that ApeA defends against RNA phage infection by cleaving the phage genome: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Karim Majzoub @karimaj.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

We found a viral Trojan Horse: a virus can hide inside another virus.This one surprised us: deltaviruses don’t just borrow a helper virus. They can travel inside it. A literal Trojan Horse “virus-in-a-virus” route into cells. 🤯 Kudos to 1st author @viroscope.bsky.social and co-authors !

sciencedirect.com

Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse

Hepatitis D-like satellite viruses, known as deltaviruses, have been recently discovered in a wide range of animals. These viruses are thought to expr…

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Mart Krupovic @mkrupovic.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

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Siân Owen @sianowen.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

We’re hiring a Microscopy Core Director at the Wadsworth Center! It's a state position (job stability & PENSION!) in a uniquely academic, research-driven environment 😎 Please share 🙏 statejobs.ny.gov/public/vacan...

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Siân Owen @sianowen.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

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Cathy Hernandez @cathyhernandez.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Excited to share a preprint of work from my postdoc with @paulturnerlab.bsky.social exploring how prophages can impact host thermal ecology and evolution. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Siân Owen @sianowen.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Happy 125th birthday to the Wadsworth Center, and New York State Department of Health! Established on this day in 1901, just 17 years after the publication of Koch's postulates

Wadsworth Center staff in front of the old laboratory on Yates St., Albany, NY. January 1915

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

🧵 After years out of the field, I and my lab are again working on bacterial type IV pili. We have just posted our first preprints, and I'm excited to share what we have discovered. This shows Neisseria gonorrheae bacteria infecting a human epithelical cell. Here, you can see the pili in red. 1/

Fluorescence micrograph. Emma Miller and Alex Merz, unpublished.

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Adair Borges @adairb.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

The best immunologists on Earth don't have PhDs. They're parasites. Today's spotlight 🧵(and big inspo for @ dittobio): ticks! And if you like this, stay tuned because we will be sharing cool parasite facts each week #TickTalk

An illustration of the Lone Star tick, Amblyomma americanum

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Boston Bacterial Meeting @bostonbacteria.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

The moment you’ve all been waiting for… 🦠 SAVE THE DATE! 🦠 BBM2026 will be held from June 22nd - 23rd at Boston University’s George Sherman Union. Our featured speaker this year is Dr. Eric Skaar from Vanderbilt University! Registration opens soon! More info at: bostonbacterial.org #BBM2026

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David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

🚨 Hiring Alert! 🚨My lab at Institut Pasteur is recruiting several Postdocs! We have exciting open projects in: 🦠 Synthetic Biology and🛡️ Bacterial Immunity. Come do great science with us in the middle of Paris! 🇫🇷🥐 research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...

research.pasteur.fr

Postdoctoral position - Synthetic Biology / Bacterial Immunity - Research

The Bikard lab at Institut Pasteur in Paris is seeking to hire postdoctoral researchers. We are investigating bacteria / bacteriophages interactions, and the genetic innovation that happens at this in...

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Jon Paczkowski🌹 @paczkowskilab.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Please help spread the word about this tremendous undergraduate research opportunity taking place in Albany this summer! www.albany.edu/rna/reu-in-rna

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Nikolai Slavov @slavov-n.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

What's larger, a protein or its templating mRNA ? > The mRNA is much larger. ⬛ 𝐀 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 -- 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐬 -- 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡. The figure shows myoglobin protein drawn to scale next to its mRNA template. The coding sequence of an mRNA ...

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Manuel Ares-Arroyo @aresarroyom.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Bacteria chromosomes contain Genomic Islands that provide virulence, antibiotic resistance, MGE-defence,... They transfer between cells, but the mechanism of most remains elusive. Here we explore the conjugative capacity of these mysterious Genomic Islands. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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Laura Suttenfield @lcatherines.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Happy new year! The second big project of my PhD in Rachel Whitaker's lab is now up! 🎉 We look at how provirus infection affects the evolution of the bacterial chromosome with different types of viral induction – with CRISPRs or antibiotics. Take a peek 🦠 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Provirus induction diversifies adaptive variation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa lysogen populations

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that forms chronic infections in people with cystic fibrosis. Often P. aeruginosa strains are lysogens, infected with proviruses, that ...

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Everyone's least favorite lab mate @kepatitis-c.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

🎉 New year, NEW PREPRINT! Bacteria exhibit astonishing genetic diversity, but where do new genes come from? My best friend Arya Kaul (/labmate in the @baym lab) investigates how advantageous deletions can spawn new genes - "deletion-born fusions." 🧵:

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Josy ter Beek @josyterbeek.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

📣New preprint with @rberntsson.bsky.social👇We overturn the long-standing view that Gram-positive bacteria lack conjugative pili! We identify pili-forming proteins in a wide range of bacteria and show they're essential for the spread of #antibioticresistance #AMR 🧵1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Pili are essential for conjugation also in many Gram-positive bacteria

Type IV secretion systems (T4SS) enable the spread of antibiotic resistance and other virulence factors. In Gram-positive bacteria, T4SSs have long been thought to lack VirB2-like proteins that form c...

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anna brogan @apbrogan.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Fer’s tour de force in B. anthracis is out! Fer got Tn-seq running, built an ordered knockout library, defined all essential sporulation genes, and found a peptidoglycan deacetylase inhibitor critical for engulfment. Including our first one-by-all Alphafold screen! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

journals.plos.org

Identification of sporulation genes in Bacillus anthracis highlights similarities and significant differences with Bacillus subtilis

How good is Bacillus subtilis as a model for the spore-forming pathogen Bacillus anthracis? Using high throughput genetics to identify B. anthracis sporulation genes and cytological analysis of the mu...

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Siân Owen @sianowen.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

So impressed by the awesome phage work going on in Western NY! Thanks for the invite @k6logc.bsky.social !! Genius branding

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Alexander Robertson @alexrob.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

My first lead author paper is out with Ben Kerr and @alisonfeder.bsky.social! We found that making an antiviral too strong can sometimes make resistance easier to evolve. This has implications for how we design drugs, choose doses, and think about viral evolution in the face of treatment. (1/n)

nature.com

Intracellular interactions shape antiviral resistance outcomes in poliovirus via eco-evolutionary feedback - Nature Ecology & Evolution

A model of intrahost poliovirus replication shows that, after several rounds of replication, pocapavir, a poliovirus capsid inhibitor, collapses viral density, preventing intracellular interactions th...

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